libctf and libsframe testing

[Indu Bhagat]

On 8/5/25 12:27 PM, Nick Alcock wrote:
> On 5 Aug 2025, Jan Beulich stated:
> 
>> On 05.08.2025 13:43, Nick Alcock wrote:
>>> On 1 Aug 2025, Jan Beulich stated:
>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> just came to notice that the testsuite runs are all building binaries for the
>>>> host, not the target.
>>>
>>> Well... the libctf testsuite should be building binaries for both,
>>> actually. libctf itself is a host library, with no target-dependent
>>> components (it leans on bfd for those), so we do want to test it on the
>>> host: that's where it'sll run.
>>>
>>> ... *however*. The binaries the testsuite builds fall into two
>>> categories:
>>>
>>>   - "lookup binaries", which are executed on the host: some just do their
>>>     own thing using libctf API calls, but others (e.g. in libctf-lookup/)
>>>     are used to inspect...
>>>   - ... object files and linked binaries which contain CTF. These are
>>>     built with the target compiler, or should be.
>>
>> Provided there is one, that is. I surely don't have some 150 cross compilers
>> installed.
> 
> Yeah, this is skipped if the target compiler is not available.
> 
>>> The compilation of both these binaries happens in
>>> libctf/testsuite/lib/ctf-lib.exp:run_lookup_test(), if you're
>>> interested. They are driven by *.lk files: any *.lk files which do not
>>> specify a source: are building lookup binaries only, on the host.
>>>
>>>>                         While this may be sensible when testing an individual
>>>> target, (afaict) it's doing all the same over and over when doing bulk tests.
>>>> I couldn't spot any means (e.g. an env var) to override this behavior, i.e.
>>>> optionally suppress such redundant testing. If there is one, could you please
>>>> point me in the right direction? If there is none, can something be added?
>>>
>>> ... sure: we could at least not rerun those tests that don't use source:
>>> at all. I wonder what the least horrible approach would be... maybe a
>>> configure flag to ask run_lookup_test to quietly do nothing if host !=
>>> target and source: is not in use?
>>
>> Well, that's precisely what I don't know, or else I might have preferred to
>> post a patch.
> 
> I guess a configure flag to libctf/configure.ac might do it. I'll see if
> I can whip one up this week, before the summer holiday.
> 

As for libsframe, which is also a host library, all tests so far need to 
be run for the host.

Skipping the libsframe testsuite for host != target when doing bulk 
tests is fine.  I too think that it makes sense to add a configure 
option (--disable-lisbframe-tests?) so they are skipped only when the 
usecase is doing bulk tests (and host != target).